Multimodal Literacy & Project Based Learning :

1. Multimodal Literacy & Project Based Learning: My Experience with Service Learning in the College English Classroom

2. Charlene Green ~ Professor of English Collin College ~ Preston Ridge Campus ~ Frisco

3. Collin College was one of 12 community colleges nationwide selected by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching for its 2010 Community Engagement Classification. In total, 115 U.S. colleges and universities were distinguished. The institutions selected include 35 research universities, 41 master’s colleges and universities, 25 baccalaureate colleges, 12 community colleges and 2 specialized institutions.

4. “Through this project, I learned a lot about myself, my community, and homelessness. I learned things as technical as making a DVD and as sentimental as every bit of donation and volunteering help. I learned that even young people like me can raise awareness about issues of importance, and that our generation can actually make a difference. . . . Because of this project, I will be slower to judge people and their situations, but quicker to help.” (Excerpt from essay by Taylor Coonce)

5. What is multi-modal literacy? “Literacy is not a singular set of abilities but is multiple and comprises gaining competencies involved in effectively using socially constructed forms of communication and representation.” Reconstructing Technoliteracy: A Multiple Literacies Approach

6. The National Council of Teachers of English posit that literacy is a student’s ability to read critically and write functionally in any medium, arguing that “in personal, civic, and professional discourse, alphabetic, visual, and aural works are not luxuries but essential components of knowing.” Position Statement: Multimodal Literacies and Technology

7. What is Service-Learning? “ . . . a teaching and learning approach that integrates community service with academic study to enrich learning, teach civic responsibility, and strengthen communities.” National Commission on Service-Learning

8. Why Service Learning? • Promotes learning through active participation • Provides structured time for students to reflect • Provides an opportunity to use skills and knowledge in real-life situations • Extends learning beyond the classroom • Fosters a sense of caring for others Adapted from the National and Community Service Act of 1990

9. John Glenn, U.S. Astronaut “Service-learning is education in action.”

10. Service-Learning is Not: • An episodic volunteer program • An add-on to an existing curriculum • Completing minimum service hours in order to graduate • Service assigned as a form of punishment • One-sided – benefiting only students or only the community

11. Community Service If students remove trash from a stream bed, they are providing a service to the community as volunteers. Service Learning When students remove trash from a stream bed, analyze what they found, share the results and offer suggestions for the neighborhood to reduce pollution, and then reflect on the experience . . . that is service-learning!

12. Designing the Project • Linking learning objectives to community need • Finding “the” community partner • Building the project • Challenging students academically and creatively

13. Examples of Projects: • Seasonal greetings for community partners’ web sites – Technical Writing Class • Instructional films for exhibits at a community partner science museum – Microbiology • Veteran’s History Project – Speech, Technical Writing, History • Persuasive documentary films on specific social issues – Sociology, Technical Writing, Composition & Rhetoric

14. The Problem: Collin County is the second richest county in Texas, yet there is only one shelter for homeless families. The only teen shelter in the county recently closed it doors to youth between the ages of 12 and 17. The Task: Students work in groups comprising four to six members on a semester-long project. Their challenge is to create a short film about homelessness to raise awareness of homelessness and promote the need for a new family shelter and to re-open the shelter for teens.

15. Service Learning Project ~ Grading Criteria • Orientation & Documentation Packet (Individual) – 10 %   • Research (Group) – 20 % • (Quality & variety of sources and information as • evidenced in bibliography & film project) • Volunteer Hours (Individual) – 25% • (Completed log returned with required hours documented) • Film Treatment (Group) – 20% • Film (Group) – 25% • (Quality, creativity, persuasiveness, and overall • effectiveness of film will be considered) • Reflection – In Class Reflection will be completed and graded as the final essay exam for English 1302.

16. And now, an example of the finished product: